Dogs will be officially off the leash in Canberra’s inner north by June with the ACT government establishing a $232,000 dog park.
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Dryandra Street in O’Connor is set to be operational within six months after it received almost twice the number of votes for the park than rival locations at either Grevillea Park in Russell or Ellenborough Street in North Lyneham.
One inner north Canberra resident who voted for the new off-leash area for O’Connor was Andrea Maher.
‘‘We have to take our two dogs to Yarralumla, which isn’t that far but it is going to be much more convenient to have somewhere on the northside that is much more central,’’ she said.
A couple of times each month she heads over to the Yarralumla dog park to let her two retrievers – Billie and Banjo – have a good run. But it isn’t easy.
‘‘One of them gets car sick so having to bundle them into the car and drive there is a bit of a trial,’’ Ms Maher said. ‘‘Having the option of walking them over [to O’Connor] and letting them socialise with the other dogs will be good.’’
Design of the dog park is finished and tenders for construction will be released this month.
A Territory and Municipal Services spokeswoman said construction was scheduled to commence in late March.
‘‘The dog park is programmed to be complete by the end of June 2014,’’ she said.
It will feature separate enclosures for small and big dogs, seating, a bubbler and water sources for dogs. The proposed dog park is situated on land that was previously an Old Parks Depot. The ACT government’s development application said the site has been land cleared to remove contamination.
More than 360 submissions were received with 46per cent preferring the O’Connor site while 25per cent voted for Russell and 29per cent for North Lyneham. All three proposed sites were able to accommodate a fenced dog park of about 1.3hectares in size.
‘‘The O’Connor site was chosen primarily for its central location within the inner north, presence of some mature shade trees, opportunity for off-street car parking and interesting terrain,’’ a TAMS spokeswoman said.
The new dog park will retain a natural grass covering. This different approach will be monitored for durability of the grass.
Previously Canberra’s dog parks had been established with dry-land grass and were not irrigated.
‘‘Due to the huge success of the dog parks and the extraordinary levels of use, grass has worn down quickly,’’ a TAMS spokeswoman said.
She said heat wave conditions had forced the government to focus their watering on other areas.
The result has been dusty dog parks for dogs and their owners.
‘‘With increasing periods of hot weather, drought conditions and water restrictions, irrigated grassed areas have been prioritised for town and district parks such as Glebe Park, where the higher levels of watering provide greater benefits to the larger number of park users and the amenity of our Town and District Parks can be maintained,’’ she said.